Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 211: A Decision

Ding Songyan was long past the age of abandoning all caution in the heat of the moment. Instead of immediately asking where Evil Beyond Measure Sun Feiyang was hiding, he looked at Ji Hanyi with suspicion and asked bluntly, "What are you trying to achieve?"

Utterly outmatched in both strength and position, he had found that playing games got him nowhere with Ji Hanyi. He chose a different approach.

Ji Hanyi tilted her lovely, innocent face upward and grinned.

"First, you’re my second brother, and I want to give you a chance to take revenge. With such deep ties we have as siblings, there’s no need to thank me. That would be far too formal.

"Second possibility: if our Sage-Severing Way acts directly, others might misunderstand, which would interfere with what comes next. But we can’t let such a chance to weaken the Accumulated Evil Way slip by, so we have to ask you to do it for us.

"Third possibility: I’ve used this opportunity to set a trap for you. You’ll be caught cooperating with our Sage-Severing Way, with no hope of clearing your name. You’ll be driven into unorthodoxy, forced to break with your Senior Sister Zheng, and left with only me, your little sister, to depend on.

"Second Brother, which do you think it is?"

Every glance of Ji Hanyi’s bright eyes shone with a pure, delicate beauty. Yet her words and tone made her seem an enchantress, toying with hearts and bewitching all who saw her.

Before Ding Songyan could answer, she switched to propping her cheek on her right hand and asked with an easy smile, "Or perhaps all three?"

"That was my guess." Ding Songyan thought he could rule out the first possibility, but could hardly say so.

At the same time, he picked up on something hidden in his sister’s words.

Others might misunderstand? Why worry about that? The Sage-Severing Way and the Accumulated Evil Way have always been enemies. Not taking the chance to kill the foremost Malevolent Envoy would be more suspicious. Unless... the heretical factions are secretly trying to cooperate over the consort selection?

But would anyone want to cooperate with the Accumulated Evil Way? They never keep their word, they’re addicted to betrayal, and they might ruin everything at any moment just for the sake of doing evil... Seen that way, it’s inevitable that the Malevolent Envoys, Evil Intent Envoys, and Eight Winds Envoys don’t get along. How could a sect that prizes disloyalty, treachery, faithlessness, and heartlessness work together in good faith? If they manage not to sabotage each other, that’s already a testament to the Demon Sovereign’s skill. There’s no hope of them refraining from kicking each other when they’re down...

Little Sister probably wasn’t lying about Sun Feiyang having no Evil Intent Envoys or Eight Winds Envoys to protect him. Whether he has powerful fighters from the Malevolent Envoy faction nearby is another matter...

Just then, Ji Hanyi beckoned again with a smile.

"Second Brother, let me whisper in your ear. Come closer."

Ding Songyan felt like Tom the cat, utterly at his little sister’s mercy. Yet he could not firmly refuse her on principle. He could only lean sideways, bringing his ear close to Ji Hanyi’s cheek.

Sigh. When someone outclasses you in strength and is just as clever, what else can you do? Appeal to her feelings and go along with her for now, just to stay alive.

Warm, delicately scented breath brushed Ding Songyan’s ear. Ji Hanyi’s voice had a hint of a girl’s briskness.

"Sun Feiyang is recovering in Qian Shulong’s former residence on Fengjia Lane, in the eastern city. Only four personal disciples are guarding him. None has reached the Dharma Realm."

Qian Shulong, a renowned calligrapher and painter, had been dead for thirty years. His descendants had sold his former residence for silver.

Enduring the tingling sensation, Ding Songyan frowned slightly.

"What about the second-rank Grandmasters who serve under him?"

Ji Hanyi continued in a soft whisper, "Sun Feiyang is badly wounded. He doesn’t dare keep those Grandmasters near him. If they betrayed him and managed to kill him, their accumulated evil would surge past its limit, bringing an immediate breakthrough. Before long, they could reach the perfected Dharma Realm and take his place as a Malevolent Envoy.

"Tan Guanchan wouldn’t punish them; instead, he would reward them. That’s the Accumulated Evil Way. Evil deeds don’t merely give them pleasure; they bring real breakthroughs in cultivation, greater strength, and advances in their arts. Techniques like Metal-Melting Finger and Malicious Words Piercer grow stronger the more numerous and heinous their deeds become."

What a vicious place to live. Unless you’re a genuine sociopath, how could you stand staying in the Accumulated Evil Way? Though if you stayed long enough, its arts and customs would probably turn you into one... To survive for over a thousand years like that, without falling apart or destroying itself from within, the Accumulated Evil Way must have something going for it... Even as he considered this, Ding Songyan inwardly complained about his sister.

There was no need to whisper any of that, was there?

I think you’re flirting with me...

At last, Ji Hanyi had her fill of teasing. She indicated that Ding Songyan could sit upright again and said with a faint smile, "Whether to risk taking revenge is your decision, Second Brother.

"In two days at most, Sun Feiyang will recover and move to another hiding place. By then, even I may not be able to find him."

The ethereal beauty rose as she spoke and smiled at Ding Songyan.

"Second Brother, our Sage-Severing Way will also try to send someone into the palace during this consort selection. If you can identify our people, I’ll tell you which of my earlier words were true and which were false."

Even if you told me, I wouldn’t dare believe you... I’d still have to check for myself... Ding Songyan rose with her and gave a bitter smile.

"I’ll try."

If all else fails, I’ll find a way to ruin the consort selection altogether.

If I can’t tell who’s who, I might as well flip the table.

"I will come back to play another day." Ji Hanyi smiled and moved gracefully toward the door, the hem of her skirt fluttering.

Play with me? I’m the toy in this, right? Watching Ji Hanyi’s retreating back, Ding Songyan suddenly called, "Qingyan."

Ji Hanyi stopped abruptly and half turned, her beautiful eyes settling on Ding Songyan.

Ding Songyan smiled.

"I’m still more used to calling you that."

Ji Hanyi chuckled.

"Even though you don’t mean it, Second Brother, I still like hearing such things."

Still smiling, she walked toward the door. The space around her gradually darkened, as though layer upon layer of invisible barriers had appeared.

Ji Hanyi soon vanished from Ding Songyan’s sight. It was as though she had stepped into another world and left the side courtyard through it.

Is that a Heaven-Man application of Establishing the Six Directions? I wonder what limits it has. If there are few, then aside from the inner palace and other vital places guarded by Supreme Masters, where in the Flame Capital couldn’t Little Sister—no, Demoness Ji—go? Ding Songyan felt he had glimpsed the version of Establishing the Six Directions he had always dreamed of.

Earlier, he had feared that Demoness Ji might have secretly derived some extraordinary art that could eavesdrop even on his sea of consciousness, sealed in dark Chaos. That was why he had forced himself to think of her as his sister or Little Sister, rather than Demoness Ji.

That, too, was a form of deceiving himself.

Ding Songyan retraced Ji Hanyi’s path to the door, searching for the slightest clue. Neither the Candle-Star Pupils nor the Celestial Heart imprint revealed anything.

Every trace seemed to have been dissolved back into unity.

Only a Grandmaster cultivating Chaos arts can understand how terrifying those arts become at the Heaven-Man Realm... The more Ding Songyan thought about it, the more alarmed he grew.

He had thought that, if Demoness Ji were still at the perfected Dharma Realm, the odds between them would be roughly seven to three: seven for her, three for him. But now that his undeserved sister had leaped into the Heaven-Man Realm, he had no chance of winning at all.

Ding Songyan stopped at his door and saw Li Baima and Wu Mo sitting at the courtyard’s stone table, listened to Fan Chunlin boast about the day’s search of the Treasure Market and how they had flushed out Evil Beyond Measure Sun Feiyang.

None of the three had noticed that a woman from their beloved Peerless Beauties of the Jianghu had just visited. They had not even heard voices in Brother Ding’s room.

Ding Songyan stepped back inside. A delicate fragrance still lingered, so faint that it was almost gone.

"Have I taken to identifying women by scent lately?" Ding Songyan gave a self-mocking smile and returned to his bed.

Only now did he have the time and composure to look around his room.

A glance revealed two things on his pillow: Ji Hanyi’s handwritten copy of The Legend of the White Snake, and the letter she had left in Old Jiang’s valley.

Both appeared to have been read.

Ding Songyan quietly released a breath.

Those two things really did come in handy...

Before coming to the Flame Capital, Ding Songyan had considered his future travels in the jianghu. A chance clash with an evenly matched opponent might damage whatever luggage he carried. He had therefore left the letters from Senior Sister and Miss Xiao Qing in his courtyard on Alpine Lake Mountain, hidden away in a locked copper box.

He had brought only his undeserved sister’s letter and her handwritten copy of The Legend of the White Snake. If he had the misfortune to encounter her, they might save his life by helping him appeal to her feelings.

Who could have guessed that Ji Hanyi would look through them before he even had a chance to bring them out?

Little Sister did seem to be in a good mood... Ding Songyan raised an eyebrow.

He put both items away with great care, then sat on the edge of the bed to consider the matter of Evil Beyond Measure Sun Feiyang.

After a while, Ding Songyan let out a long breath. He had made his decision.

He would hunt down and kill Evil Beyond Measure Sun Feiyang.

But first, he needed to make preparations.

Ding Songyan left his room and went into the courtyard.

In the darkness, Fan Chunlin was describing the burial-object vendor’s strange behavior and the red moth that had crawled out of his mouth and nose after he died.

Seeing Ding Songyan approach, Fan Chunlin said earnestly, "Brother Ding, you saw it too. That thing was truly sinister. I wonder what martial art could produce it."

"The Moth God Scripture," Ding Songyan said evenly as he sat down.

"You... you know?" Fan Chunlin stammered.

Li Baima and Wu Mo also turned to Ding Songyan in astonishment.

None of the three had any idea what that sinister moth was.

"It comes from the Feng Kingdom’s Moth-God Sect," Ding Songyan added briefly. "The vendor was a puppet, a moth-man with a moth seed inside him. A moth patriarch or moth matriarch was controlling him from nearby."

That was how the original art worked. With the Celestial Heart imprint added, Ding Songyan believed the moth matriarch Ji Hanyi no longer needed to hide nearby. She could be very, very far away, while her moth-man still behaved like a real, lively person.

"You’ve certainly seen and learned a great deal, Brother Ding," Li Baima said admiringly.

Ding Songyan smiled.

"I once lived and ate with a moth patriarch for over half a year. I hadn’t even begun practicing martial arts then."

What...? Fan Chunlin and the others stared, their pupils widening slightly.

He had encountered such sinister martial arts before he even began training, and survived unharmed?